Today's workout and What a Difference A Day Makes

Just a quick post with today's workout and a note about my back hurting in different areas but better today.

Finished up the month long Virtual Challenge on the Concept 2 rower website with a 3770 meter row in 20 minutes.  Then hustled to yoga class which was good-Grace does a good job mixing static poses like plank and side plank with some flow and some holding poses long enough for us older participants to get some stretch.  Plus the consistent yoga classes for over a year now seem to have helped my focus and "monkey mind".

OK, on to my back pains, which might help others that deal with similar stuff.  Sunday I had a sharp pain in my upper middle back, which was helped by some foam roller work.  Then yesterday my lower right side of my back hurt.  I did some weed pulling in the back yard, and made sure to squat deeply instead of bend at the waist.  Plus I varied sitting and standing at work today, then the yoga class.  Everything feels pretty good right now.

To bed soon-rest is an important part of fitness too.

Quick post-yesterday's workout and plan for this week

Just a quick update before getting ready for work.

I got a short row in unexpectedly-only 555 meters but something, and then did some light yardwork for about half an hour.  Not much of a workout, but staying active.  Every little bit helps, especially as I was pretty tight yesterday and back had a "pinch".  Some foam roller time helped that out too.

Plan to row, stretch and probably lift today, aim for the yoga class Tuesday and the MRT class Thursday.  Looks like I need to put in a long aerobic day-mix of rowing and bike-sometime else.

Have a great week!

Quick Note-2 workouts including PR on Conceot 2 Rower

Yesterday was a rowing only workout.  I warmed up and then did my second 1000 meter time trial.  Now that I've actually worked on form and been rowing more, the PR was nearly two minutes fastor that what I previously logged.

Tonight was the on-base yoga class.  Good class, but right near the end my hip flexors started tightening up.  Lots of sitting on either side of the hard row yesterday and more sitting today.  Now they are in knots and need tomorrow' rest day as much as any part of me!

Just a quick post to say I'm alive

Haven't posted much in quite awhile or really worked out.  Need to get back into the gym, enough rest for some injuries.

Been doing some yoga, light cals and stretching.

Just wanted to post a quick note for my few readers, the search engines, SEO crawlers etc.

Daily workout (actually workouts) for the past two days

Yesterday my lifts were good and all are close to, at, or above where they were before I got sick a few weeks ago.  It was a Stronglifts 5x5 day, so after my usual warm-up here's what the work sets were:

Squats 5x5 150 pounds-back up to last working set before getting sick
BP 5x5 85 pounds-going up as 80 was the weight I lifted before sick
Deadlift 185x5-still have a little way to go to get back up to 205, but not rushing deadlift due to bad back spasm in October.

Today instead of a full rest day I did "active rest" and spun a quality spinning class bike for just over 20 minutes.  I also did my usual warm-up with some extra stretching/yoga and foam rolling to support lifting heavier weights this week.

Hope you had a good workout too!

Too much "can do" can do you in

When I was a student at the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center (NDSTC aka The Dive School), one of the Diving Medical Techs/Corpsman had a saying.  He would often say "Too much 'Can do' can do you in."  You see, "Can Do" was one of the motivational sayings we would use, and his point was being too "can do" at the wrong time could have very serious complications when you or your dive buddy's life depended on your physical and mental condition.  Did he mean we weren't to push ourselves?  No-while he didn't look the most imposing physically he could PT just as hard as any other instructor and his workouts were no joke.  But knowing ourselves and our condition became a reinforced instructional point as we progressed to being Navy Divers and Navy Diving Officers.

Fast forward over 20 years, and we're both long retired from the Navy.  But his words rang true again yesterday as I did a full day of chores for the first time since my back spasm I've already written about.  One task even involved shipping a large heavy box-what contributed to the back spasm in the first place!  So throughout the day I was conscious of when my posture started slipping-like raking/sweeping up leaves bent at the waist or bending awkwardly while working on my motorcycle.  The back seemed to hold up pretty well and I'm not too sore today.  Just the usual age related stuff mainly, so hopefully I wasn't too "Can Do" on my Honey-Do list!  Oh yeah, I also need to book a whole bunch of hours of household tasks type work on the Presidential Fitness Challenge.

A shotgun blast of short updates-no new "theme" per se

Ramblings of an over-caffeinated yet rested and generally pain-free brain:

1) Back spasm pretty much resolved after one month, relapse, chiropractic and medicinal treatment and lifestyle/stretching changes.  What I've learned:  These may get worse as I age, so proactive care will be needed.  Nothing I don't already know but need to keep doing the right things-posture, stretching, lifting and calisthenics to maintain core strength.  New tricks I learned this time around:  Heat immediately, not ice.  Stretching flat on back on a hard surface helps.  Psoas muscle as much the culprit as back muscles.

2) Diet important and getting enough calories helps across the board.  I'm less stressed, sleep better and generally healthier on a whole food diet but also need to ensure any calorie deficit is short-term and the rest of the diet is very solid if that is the case.  I have reached a new "set point" weight wise at 178-179 instead of 190-192 and happy at this weight as I start lifting again.  putting 5 pounds of lean muscle back on would be good but not essential.

3) Presidential Fitness Challenge and John Stone Fitness 1,000,000 push-up challenge are going to take a long time!  As most recently noted in this post I'm back to logging points for the Presidential Fitness Challenge.  I'm making progress, but as the awards get higher in value, the required points expand.  Getting to Silver is going to take a few more months, and then Gold and above are likely years away.  Another challenge I am doing is the 1 million pushup challenge over at www.johnstonefitness.com.  I may be the only person posting right now, and since I'm not doing a lot of pushups currently we might never make it.  Help out if you can!

Well, that's it for today, maybe some advice or work-out tip over the weekend.

Am I almost past this back spasms? Some treatment successes to pass along

So today marks the three week mark from the first really bad back spasms and three days since a minor relapse.  The relapse was shocking because I had been to the chiropractor the day before, but probably walked too much that afternoon plus moved a few pieces of furniture (fairly light ones though) that evening.

What seems to be working:

Lots of laying flat and sitting in stiff backed chairs.

Avoiding slumping and overstuffed furniture (very common now-a-days and not healthy in general!)

Lots of water

Less caffeine

Stretching-the yoga name for the stretch is Supta Padangusthasana (say that tonight with a Halloween caramel chew in your mouth!).  It's the one where you lie flat on your back, put a strap around your foot or at least big toe and pull your straight leg up toward your head.

    Oddly enough, my left leg, the asymptomatic one, is generally harder to stretch with more tightness and pain when in the stretch.  So I've eased off a little and only stretch to about 80-90% range of motion.

Hopefully this continues to resolve and light activity helps as I have to be moving around some!